Video: Formatting text with the Adjust Glyph tool

Okay, so the Glyph tool seriously might be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's really nice to have such precise control of the text. Not only letter-by-letter, but each letter shadow, outline and glows directly controlled within the canvas. Yup! Let's check it out. First, we want to actually select the Adjust Glyph tool. Go up into the 2D Adjust Control pop-up menu and choose the Adjust Glyph tool, second from the bottom, T with the bounding box around it. With that selected, you can click on each individual letter in the word.

In Motion 4 Essential Training, Ian Robinson shows how to start building outstanding motion graphics and animations for video production. He demonstrates how to build custom text animations with the new Adjust Glyph tool and explores Motion’s amazing real-time 3D tools. Ian highlights working in the 3D space, creating depth with lights and shadows, and using reflections to add realism. He gives practical advice on how to integrate Motion into a professional video workflow, round-tripping with Final Cut Pro and sending a final project to Compressor. Exercise files accompany this course.

Topics include:

Understanding the toolbar and setting the essential preferences to get started

Adding .mov files, still images, and Photoshop and Illustrator assets to a project

Formatting text with the Adjust Glyph tool

Okay, so the Glyph tool seriously might be the greatest thing since sliced bread.It's really nice to have such precise control of the text.Not only letter-by-letter, but each letter shadow, outline and glows directlycontrolled within the canvas. Yup!Let's check it out.First, we want to actually select the Adjust Glyph tool.Go up into the 2D Adjust Control pop-up menu and choose the Adjust Glyph tool,second from the bottom, T with the bounding box around it.With that selected, you can click on each individual letter in the word.

If you want to select more than one letter hold down the Shift key, and if youwant to jump between selecting letters, hold down the Apple key.Let's just get started by selecting one letter, just click off all of theselections and then click back on the letter I. If you are not seeing thesehandles, you want to go up to the View menu and make sure Handles and Lines are both selected.So, you notice we have our X, Y, and Z control handles, as well as X, Y, and Z rotation bands.

So, if I click on any of the Rotation bands, I'll rotate the letter.And if I click on any of the Arrows, we'll go ahead and reposition it in 3D space.You can do this letter-by- letter throughout the entire word.So, let's reposition these letters in a somewhat imaginative state.I'll just click-and-drag them around.Now not only can you reposition your letters and rotate them in your canvas.But if you pull up your HUD, F7 on the keyboard you notice we have all the same3D controls that we'd have in the other parts of the application.

But if you look down here at the bottom, we have Adjust Around.We can adjust in the Local World or View Axis, which I'll cover in depth in the 3D section.But more importantly we have the Attribute section, where we can adjust thespecific attributes of this text.Now since, the text is only white, let's go ahead and add some style on to the text.If you go to the Library tab, you'll notice just below LiveFonts we have Text Styles.And if you click on the different text styles and move up and down with yourArrow keys, you can get a preview of each different text style.

Let's apply the Text Style Minimal Optics.Now with one individual letter selected, if I clicked Apply, you notice it'sstill going to apply it to all of them, and that's just how the Libraryworks with Text Styles.But if you come back to the canvas and just select the individual letter, youwould go into your Inspector, under the Text Style section.You'll notice I can change the individuals Text Options for each letter.So, if I just click on I here and Ctrl -click in the color well, you can gothrough and change the colors of individual letter.

You can also change the font in the pulldown menu.Let's go ahead and change one of those.You get the idea, but to comeback to the Attribute Transform Glyph Option, let'sselect the letter N, and you notice in our Style menu, it has a Face parameterand the Glow parameter.So, if I choose in the pop-up menu Glow.Now, I got a separate Bounding box where I can click on a corner and drag, andnow I'm just repositioning the glow of that individual letter.

This is really, really cool.I don't know if you are as exciting as I am, but I'm pretty excited.So, you notice as you click on the different control points they haveslightly different options.The Edge control points will distort the letters, whereas the middle handleswill skew the letters to different angles.If we had more options for Outline and Drop Shadow, we could just click throughand adjust those accordingly, using the Attribute pop-up menu in the HUD withthe Adjust Glyph tool selected.

So, there you have it. That's it.Direct interaction with your text and its individual styles, letter-by-letterwith the Glyph tool.

Q: In Motion 4, is it possible to create an intro with multiple pictures, where some pictures enter from the left side and some from the right side of the frame, with all fading as they approach the center of the canvas?

A: The effect described is a very specific move utilizing 3D space. One effective method is to work in true 3D space, instead of trying to use a behavior, by keyframing the animation. Try these steps:

Place a camera in the scene and switch the scene to 3D.

Rotate the first image to an angle that achieves the desired effect, and slide it on the X axis until it is out of the scene on the right of the stage.

Turn on Auto Keyframing and make sure a keyframe is recorded for the rotation and position.

Move the playhead down the Timeline and move the picture to it's ending point and adjust the rotation a little for the end.

To get the image to disappear, adjust the camera's far plane of view, making sure to soften it so it has a smooth transition into oblivion.
Then simply duplicate the picture and change the rotation and position keyframes to the exact opposite values for rotation and position.

Q: When attempting to change views as the instructor demonstrates in the “Viewing a 3D scene in different layouts” video, I only see the text in the Perspective view. When the instructor uses the Top and Bottom screen split, and uses the Top view, my screen does not show the four horizontal lines that represent the four words used in the tutorial.
Are there settings that need to be changes in order to view all the objects as demonstrated in the tutorial?

A: It’s possible that when viewing the project from different?angles, the letters may be sliding way out of the view area.
Here’s how to fix it: Whenever you can't see your objects in the?scene, select at least one of them in the Layers panel and then press?F or Command+F to frame the selected objects in the scene.

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